


Yellow Phosporus

by PFDiva



Category: Friends at the Table (Podcast)
Genre: F/M, Post-Miracle, Signet indulging her vice, aka signet teaching people how to take care of people's psychological needs?, does anybody remember the fucking exponential mandate?, mild teacher/student dynamics?, the wip title for this was Signet hella fucks so ymmv
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-01
Updated: 2018-06-01
Packaged: 2019-05-16 20:41:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,044
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14818496
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PFDiva/pseuds/PFDiva
Summary: Signet indulges her vice sometime during the year after the Miracle.





	Yellow Phosporus

Signet signed into her account and accepted the bracelet that the sign-in device spat out for her. One of the nice things about houses of pleasure in the same network was that she didn't have to upload her health documents or fill out her preferences all over again.

She wasn't the only one in this particular house of pleasure, which said good things about it, and she found herself an empty booth, pulling the translucent curtain across the opening to disinvite other attendees. Some people enjoyed an audience, but Signet wasn't one of them.

Since the Miracle, the pleasure houses had to change the types of drinks they offered, but Signet had been to this network of places often enough to have developed a new preference. The jelly juice was popular, but not to her tastes. She went with something a little easier on the digestion and less fuzzing to her nerves. She rather regretted the decision when one of the hosts opened the curtain and slid into the seat across from her, catching her attention.

He was exactly to her tastes: tall and broad-shouldered with deeply olive skin and the most gorgeous green eyes. The only problem was that she'd spent the last month inducting him into the Exponential Mandate. This was a conflict of interest, to say the very least. At least on her part.

"I knew I should have asked which network you worked for," Signet sighed, more to herself than to Ember as he closed both curtains. He chuckled in response, handing over her drink with a warm smile.

"At least I know I wasn't imagining things."

"I thought I was being subtle."

"You were," he assured her, then gestured to her bracelet, which only identified her presence to hosts who matched her activity preferences, though it weighted hosts who also matched her appearance preferences, "But here we are."

Signet chuckled wryly, "You're not wrong." The silence stretched a moment longer than was polite, but not uncomfortably. After a moment, Signet looked up from her drink and felt a foolish grin blossom across her face to see Ember watching her with a besotted smile. He seemed to startle out of his thoughts when she looked up and gestured towards the curtains.

"Do you want me to go?" The look on his face said he knew what her answer was, but he had to ask.

"Would it make you uncomfortable about what I've taught you if I said no?"

He leaned forward in a liquid motion of sinuous grace that she'd only seen hints of over the past few weeks, "Not at all. I know more about you than I know about most clients, and that makes it _very_ easy to do my job."

Signet laughed, flattered by his words.

"Well, I'd hate to make your job harder."

"It'd be unkind," he teased, making her laugh again. "Especially since I get to do what I've wanted to do for weeks, now."

Signet knew better than to take that comment seriously. He was on the job and that was the sort of thing all hosts said. It would be stupid of him to not use what he knew of her to his advantage.

She only had a moment to consider what might or might not have been real because he was cupping her face in his hand, leaning across the tiny table to give her a kiss. He was good. He was really very good and Signet let herself relax into his capable hands.

When he'd thoroughly scrambled her with his kiss, he broke off to suggest dinner. Signet let herself be teased into more expensive meals than she'd usually purchase for either herself or the host attending her, and even bought dessert and a couple extra (non-alcoholic) drinks, knowing that it would all increase his commission for the night.

After the meal, Ember and Signet sat and talked about nothing important. It was nice to do that. So much of her job was listening to people and comforting people. It was rewarding, but also exhausting. That was why she needed to spend time with hosts and hostesses. They knew how to keep things light.

Of course, since Signet already knew Ember, she couldn't help but steer the conversation to more serious topics. She couldn't help her sheepish laugh when Ember used her own techniques to keep the conversation where they both knew she wanted it. "I think I'm ready to go to bed," Signet decided and Ember nodded.

"Let's see what sort of room you've chosen for us," he said, cupping her hand in his so that he could access her bracelet. The room layout popped up, a tiny image between them and he made an offended noise, "It's the smallest room here! You deserve better than _that!_ " With a swipe, he queued up a much larger suite--more suitable for a large party than one woman and her host for the night.

Signet scoffed in disbelief, laughing with him as she returned to her initial choice. They spent the next few minutes flipping back and forth between larger and smaller rooms, Signet laughing at Ember as he extolled the virtues of each one. This was part of the game as well, but he'd lose. Even though there were rooms larger than her choice that were still appropriate, she enjoyed the closeness of the small ones, the titillating intimacy of closed spaces uncommon to her home ship.

Ember pushed the game harder than any other host here might have--he was the only one who knew how she'd react to being pushed. He still lost, but she didn't object to the pushiness the way she might have with a host she didn't know. He acknowledged his defeat by checking her medical documents.

Hosts and hostesses got monthly tests and weren't allowed to take clients if they had anything. Clients only needed to have tests within the last six months, at most pleasure houses. Signet traveled a lot, so she tried to get tested more frequently, but sometimes it didn't work out like that. Either way, her information was current enough that Ember slid out of his seat to offer her a hand.

Signet took his hand and followed where he led.


End file.
